Leaf Pick-Up Q&A

Map of the Pick-Up Zones


It is that time of year, the leaves are finally starting to fall, and all of us homeowners are scrambling to get rid of the pesky things before winter.

Just to quickly review the City’s leaf collection program; the city has contracted with our waste hauler Advanced Disposal to operate a vacuum truck and crew to pick up leaves that have been raked to the public parkway in front of residences. This is a service paid for as part of the quarterly water, sanitary, and garbage bill each residence receives, it is not part of our property tax bill.

The program operates for four weeks, and may be paused or extended due to weather conditions. Residents can also bag their leaves and place them where their trash is picked up. Advanced will collect bagged yard waste through November 30th.

Any citywide service generates a number of comments or concerns, some of which I have read on social media, and rather than spending a great deal of time answering these individually, here is a quick Q&A on leaf collection for everyone’s reference.

Here are the top questions or concerns:
  1. They are skipping sections of the parkway, and not picking up leaves that aren't piled.
  2. They did one side of the street but not the other, are they coming back? 
  3. The guys following the truck are talking on their cellphones instead of raking.
I discussed these issues with Ray Roberts the Director of Public Works, and he contacted Advanced’s coordinator for the leaf program about them, and here are the responses.

  1. Advanced will only pick up the leaves that are in a pile. They are not responsible for raking or clearing the whole parkway.
  2. The crew runs a route, they work one side of the street then come back after the end of the route. They don’t turn around at the end of the block and come back.
  3. They do have a supervisor on site and the coordinator said he would inform him of the cell phone use.
Director Roberts also has the city street sweeper following the pickup route to collect leaves from the gutters. He and Superintendent Ransom are also spot checking the work being done on a daily basis.

The key points for homeowners is to rake the leaves into a pile, and keep the pile on the parkway grass within reach of the vacuum hose as much as possible. Also, keep in mind that wind and weather are a factor in this project, and our goal is to help residents collect the bulk of our leafy friends before the season ends.

The information page on the Leaf Collection program can be found on the City Website at http://www.cityofzion.com/public-works/leaf-collection/

If you have additional questions or concerns about leaf collection, you can contact Advanced Disposal at (847) 623-3870

Public Works can be reached at (847) 746-4050, and if you have a Public Works or City related question I can be contacted at christopherf@zion.il.us

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